Perjury trial of treehouse murderer Julia Enright's ex-boyfriend goes to jury

WORCESTER ― A 14-member jury is set to start deliberating Thursday in the perjury trial of Jonathan Lind, the man facing accessory charges related to the 2018 murder of Brandon Chicklis.

The ex-boyfriend of Julia Enright, who was convicted of murdering Chicklis in a treehouse near her Ashburnham home in 2018, Lind is alleged to have lied to a grand jury while under oath months after the crime in October 2018.

After three days of evidence presentation, Assistant District Attorney Shayna Lee Woodard alleged Wednesday during her closing statement that Lind had lied to a grand jury to protect Enright and himself after helping Enright dump Chicklis’ body off a highway in New Hampshire, where it sat for weeks before being found.

On Wednesday, Woodard spoke to the couple’s shared obsession with the macabre, trading texts fantasizing about murder and engaging in sexual “bloodplay,” as well as Enright’s fondness for collecting dead animals.

She alleged that Enright had lured Chicklis, a former boyfriend, to the treehouse to kill him and to create a bloodbath that she would use in a sexual encounter with Lind.

Wednesday, Woodard showed texts to the jury in which Enright had asked Chicklis to “make sure no one knows we're hanging out” and not to “tell anyone where you’re going.” 

Enright, who is serving the maximum sentence for second-degree murder of 25 years to life without parole, was alleged during her trial to have stabbed Chicklis multiple times in a treehouse she had outfitted with restraints.

Prosecutors believe that the killing happened June 23, 2018.

“Those are not innocent things somebody texts to somebody,” Woodard said. “Those are the words of somebody with murderous intent.”

When asked to testify under oath to the grand jury, Woodard said, Lind said he hadn't gone to the treehouse where the murder took place, hadn't talked about Chicklis with Enright and hadn't gone on the trip to New Hampshire where the lifeless body was dumped, despite evidence and phone records showing otherwise.

Woodard alleged Enright had called Lind to help dispose of the body and to move the victim’s car, which had been parked on a dirt road near the treehouse.

On Wednesday, a state police official was called to the stand to present evidence of Lind’s phone being tracked by AT&T cell towers.

During cross-examination, defense lawyer Kevin C. Larson cast doubt on the findings, saying the tracking didn’t prove that Lind had his phone on him, nor did it prove Lind’s exact location – only that he was within a certain radius from the cell towers.

Larson argued Wednesday in his closing statement that his client didn’t kill Chicklis, didn’t assist Enright in disposing Chicklis’ body and didn’t help Enright in moving Chicklis’ vehicle.

Arguing that his client wasn’t asked any direct or pertinent question about the murder and the subsequent disposal of the body, Larson maintained Lind never lied and didn’t commit perjury because he could only answer questions that he was asked, not the questions that he should have been asked.

Wednesday Larson listed a series of questions that he believes the prosecution should have asked his client but didn’t, including: "Did you help to wrap up Chicklis’ body?" "Did you move Chicklis’ body?" "Did you drive to Rindge, New Hampshire?" and, "Did you play any role in disposing Chicklis’ body?"

“They (prosecutors) have not come close to proving to you beyond a reasonable doubt that Jonathan committed perjury,” Larson said emphatically to the jury.

Lind also faces charges of accessory to murder and disinterring a body, which will be tried at a later date.   

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Jury begins deliberations in perjury trial of Jonathan Lind